- Archbishop Emeritus Kwasi Sarpong
The Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Kumasi, Most Rev. Peter Kwasi Sarpong has noted with strong reservations about Peaceful Election 2016 stating that “Prospects for sustainable peace in election 2016 are grim”.
The revered Catholic Archbishop made the observation when he delivered a speech on the theme “Election 2016 and Prospects for Sustainable Peace: Whose Responsibility?” in the 2nd Disciplined in Leadership Lecture Series organized by the Presbyterian University College, Ghana (PUCG).
His strong worded speech walked his audience through governance in pre-colonial and colonial days as well as how post independence regimes came to power and their performance.
Assessment
Recounting Ghana’s elections from 1992, Archbishop Kwasi Sarpong noted that all these elections were “characterized by unfortunate incidents that made nonsense of the idea of seeking peace for the Nation.” He added “the last four elections did nothing to reduce the incidence of corruption, bribery, deceit, intimidation and Godlessness.
The Archbishop posited that these elections have rather shown the worst side of the multi-party democracy in Ghana. According to him, the sublime objective of elections, that is, getting citizens who will work for the common good, has been perverted, desecrated and raped.
“Consequently, the system of election which is essential to multi-party democracy has become a platform for condemnation, lobbying, persuasion, pressuring to win votes”. “People have been abused, intimidated, threatened and even killed”, he mourned.
Lionness, Tigerness, Wolfness, Cobraness
“The peace that the election 2016 is meant to achieve is possible and can be achieved but it will be a joke it has always been, if Christian leaders, whether they be politicians, civil servants, professionals, peacemakers, media personnel, farmers, drivers, market women or armed forces personnel, whoever, do not change their violent behavior”, the Catholic Father warned.
Prescribing solutions to the chaos that usually characterize elections in Ghana, Archbishop Kwasi Sarpong charged all Christian candidates for the Presidency and Parliament to “Divest themselves of their lionness, tigerness, wolfness and cobraness” and put themselves in the place of the simple Ghanaian.
“We commit spiritual cannibalism and suicide by refusing to accept our dignity as images of God”, he said.
The Catholic Archbishop Emeritus of Kumasi wants Christian law-enforcement agents to “put down their feet” to ensure that hate-mongers are brought to justice and also stamp out hate-speeches with firmness.
‘Kingdom” of Peace
Borrowing the words of St. Augustine, Archbishop Peter Kwasi Sarpong defined Peace as the tranquility of order. He argued that Peace is linked with justice and justice is the conformity with God’s laws – therefore, peace cannot arise out of a government by Godless crooks and criminals.
He said Peace is safeguarded by discipline that each individual constantly exercises over himself and by the vigilance of lawful authority. Hence a regime without justice cannot be a regime or kingdom of peace.
The octogenarian said Ghana has been in search of a better form of governance for years and yet after elections, some of Ghana’s leaders who mean well and start well have their efforts thwarted by their own unwariness or misjudgment or greed or arrogance or by their compatriots.
“The experience has been sad and it is to be regretted that election 2016 is showing the same pre-election insanity that we are so used to. We have no reason whatsoever to expect that the election-day disasters and the post election plunder of the nation will cease”.
Responsibility
The Archbishop Emeritus of Kumasi, Most Rev. Peter Kwasi Sarpong believes that all sections of the citizenry are responsible for making sustainable peace a realistic proposition.
He said Presidential candidates should be God-fearing and try to prevail over their supporters to stop their sycophancy, the mudslinging of opposing candidates, threats, and intimidation.
He cautioned the electorates to vote on policies or realistic programmes of the candidates and not on tribal lines or in order to be rewarded.
Most Rev. Peter Kwasi Sarpong charged the media and media practitioners, both state and private to be free, fair, honest, truthful and circumspect in their coverage of the electioneering, the elections proper, and the publications of results noting that their role is “Crucial”.
The Annual Discipline in Leadership Lecture Series is organized by the Presbyterian University College, Ghana in fulfillment of its institutional mandate to provide leadership and contribute to public discourse on critical issues that concern Ghana’s development.
The Lecture was hosted by Rev Prof. Emmanuel Adow Obeng, the President of Presbyterian University College, Ghana.